Julian Champagnie scored 21 points and made four of four free throws in the final 19 seconds as St. John’s rallied from a nine-point second-half deficit to defeat Butler 75-72 in a Big East game Saturday in Indianapolis.
Champagnie made two free throws with eight seconds left for the final margin. Chuck Harris then air-balled a hurried, contested three-point attempt for Butler (11-12, 4-8) with one second left, and the Red Storm (13-9, 5-6) inbounded the ball and ran out the clock.
Tareq Coburn made two foul shots with 1:19 to go to give the visitors a 71-68 lead, but Bo Hodges’ driving layup with 24 seconds to go cut St. John’s lead to 71-70. Champagnie made two foul shots with 19 seconds to go for a 73-70 lead, but Aaron Thompson cut Butler’s deficit to one with another layup.
Dylan Addae-Wusu made one of two free throws with 2:15 left to break a tie at 68 and put St. John’s ahead to stay.
Aaron Wheeler scored 13 points, and Joel Soriano and Posh Alexander each had 12 for St. John’s. Alexander had five assists.
Hodges scored 22 points and Byrce Nze had 14 for Butler. Thompson contributed nine points and seven assists.
Butler briefly put some distance between itself and the Red Storm early in the second half with a 7-0 run, capped by Hodges’ 3-pointer from the right wing. That gave the Bulldogs a 54-46 lead with 15:09 to go in the game.
St. John’s responded with a 12-3 spurt and went back on top, 58-57, on a jump shot by Alexander with 10:31 left. But Nze scored on a pass from Thompson and then Bryce Golden’s three gave the Bulldogs a 62-58 lead with 8:35 left.
But an offensive drought by Butler allowed St. John’s to rally again, and a pair of free throws and a mid-range jumper by Wheeler tied the score at 62 with 5:53 left. The score also was tied at 64, 66 and 68.
Both teams were executing well on offense early. By the under-12 media timeout, Butler led 22-19 and was shooting 9 of 14 (64.3 percent). St. John’s was just a step behind at 8 of 13 (61.5 percent).
There were six ties and 10 lead changes in the first half, which ended in a 41-41 tie.
–Field Level Media
